1. In the space below, describe the stasis at the beginning of the play NOT THE FILM of Real Women Have Curves. In other words, “Where are we?” “When is it (time, day, and year)?” “Who are the people involved?” “What is the dramatic situation in which the characters find themselves as the play unfolds?”
The scene is set in a rough area of East Los Angeles during the 1980's inside a sewing factory. It is the beginning of the day, 7 am when the factory first opens, and Ana and her mother, Carmen, non enthusiastically get ready for another monotonous day.
2. What is the intrusion that causes the stasis to be broken in the play and the dramatic action to develop, often at an increasingly rapid pace, to the end of the play?
Breaking the stasis of the routine, mundane morning, Estela announces that the factory is facing bankruptcy and she might get deported because she can not receive any more money due to her criminal record preventing her from getting legal citizens; therefore, she can not pay for materials, machines, or employees. The ladies must come up with a system that will allow them to have 100 dresses sewn by Friday.
3. Why do the events of the play take place at this particular time and place? In other words, what is the unique factor which is out of the ordinary that causes a turn of events to take place?
Estela is the only one of the women who isn't legal in the U.S. at this very moment, which causes the women to work rapidly and cautiously to meet their dress quota while hiding from "la migra". All around their factory stores are being raided and neighbors are being deported. This particular setting makes the thought of being found out even more unsettling throughout the play.
4. State the dramatic questions that must be answered by the end of the play? (Ordinarily, the dramatic question shares a close connection with the intrusion.)
Will the ladies meet their dress quota on time?
Will the factory be discovered?
.Will Estela be deported?
5. Use Ana, the central character, to answer the questions. Ball says, a character is revealed by what he/she does, that is, the dramatic actions that are taken by that character. Examine what Ana wants (NOTE: In Real Women Ana's wants seem to be in flux. They change as the play progresses). The wants of a character often encounter obstacles that get in the way of achieving those wants. Ball says there are 4 kinds of obstacles that frustrate the wants of a character. They are: a. Me against myself, b. Me against another individual, c. Me against society (that is law, social norms, etc.) and, d. Me against fate, the universe, natural forces, God or the gods. In answering these questions be sure to point to the particular obstacles that demonstrate these obstacles.
6. The most important information in most plays takes place during theatrical moments. Identify the most theatrical moments in Real Women Have Curves.
The most theatrical moment takes place towards the end of the play when all of the women take their clothes off. This action symbolizes the women's acceptance of their bodies and realization that they deserve to be liberated from the company that owns them, men that don't see their worth, and the literal heat that has slowed them down.
7. Provide at least three examples of images in Real Women. How does the title of the play help us understand the images in the play? (Remember Ball says that, “An image is the use of something we know that tells us something we don’t know.” He goes on to say that images invoke and expand, rather than define and limit.”)
Carmen's scar: the scar on her stomach serves as a reminder for Estela's birth, but also reveals the deeper significance that Carmen's husband has made her believe that all she's good for is having babies.
Ana's journal: the journal doesn't just provide insight to the character's thoughts for the audience, but signifies how isolated she feels in the factory and the secrecy she feels the need to keep from the other women, even though half of them are her family.
The cluttered factory: notes from the production describe the factory as being covered in "boxes, plastic bags, piles of trash, tread, loose material...old fruit, dirty dishes", etc. The messy factory shows where the women stand in society and what conditions they're forced to work under in the 1980's. Even though almost all of them were legal, they were still weren't treated with fair citizenship.
8. Ordinarily, there are many themes in most plays. List the themes in Real Women.
Feminism
Hope
Self-worth
Liberation
9. Most American plays have something to do with family and/or family relationships. What does family have to do with the dramatic action in Real Women? Is family redefined in this play? If so, how and why?
The typical roles of a family are flipped on their heads on this play when we see Estela, the daughter, as the boss of a company where Carmen, her mother, is her employee. However, throughout the play we see the women come together, fall apart, and come back to each other at the end of the day like they all belonged to the same family. Ana finds confidence in herself at the end of the play when she contradicts her mother's idea of beauty. She's happy with her weight and wants to be seen as more than an object of sex. Carmen comes to terms with her daughter's acceptance and strips down with the rest of the cast.
2. What is the intrusion that causes the stasis to be broken in the play and the dramatic action to develop, often at an increasingly rapid pace, to the end of the play?
3. Why do the events of the play take place at this particular time and place? In other words, what is the unique factor which is out of the ordinary that causes a turn of events to take place?
4. State the dramatic questions that must be answered by the end of the play? (Ordinarily, the dramatic question shares a close connection with the intrusion.)
5. Use Ana, the central character, to answer the questions. Ball says, a character is revealed by what he/she does, that is, the dramatic actions that are taken by that character. Examine what Ana wants (NOTE: In Real Women Ana's wants seem to be in flux. They change as the play progresses). The wants of a character often encounter obstacles that get in the way of achieving those wants. Ball says there are 4 kinds of obstacles that frustrate the wants of a character. They are: a. Me against myself, b. Me against another individual, c. Me against society (that is law, social norms, etc.) and, d. Me against fate, the universe, natural forces, God or the gods. In answering these questions be sure to point to the particular obstacles that demonstrate these obstacles.
6. The most important information in most plays takes place during theatrical moments. Identify the most theatrical moments in Real Women Have Curves.
7. Provide at least three examples of images in Real Women. How does the title of the play help us understand the images in the play? (Remember Ball says that, “An image is the use of something we know that tells us something we don’t know.” He goes on to say that images invoke and expand, rather than define and limit.”)
8. Ordinarily, there are many themes in most plays. List the themes in Real Women.
9. Most American plays have something to do with family and/or family relationships. What does family have to do with the dramatic action in Real Women? Is family redefined in this play? If so, how and why?